This invention relates to a recording method, a managing method, and a recording apparatus capable of high-speed data recording by only recording data in a recording medium during data recording and updating file management data collectively after the end of data recording in the recording apparatus to record data to be inputted continuously in the non-volatile memory that is managed according to file management data and is discretely recordable in the plural blocks.
A small-sized recording medium having a solid memory element such as flash memory is formed, it is incorporated in a driving apparatus, which is exclusively used for such solid memory element, as a built-in memory, or the driving apparatus is incorporated in an audio/video apparatus or information apparatus as a built-in driving apparatus. Such apparatus described herein above used for storing the computer data, stationary image data, moving picture data, and audio data has been developed recently.
In a recording system which utilizes such solid memory element, because the content of the moving picture data, and audio data is temporally continuous intrinsically, when so-called stream data which is being continuously supplied is recorded as the recording data, in some cases the data is not recorded properly because of unconformable relation between the recordable data quantity per unit time and the bit rate of the stream data.
In other words, in the case that the bit rate, data quantity per unit time, of the stream data supplied continuously exceeds the bit rate of the recordable data quantity, the stream data overflows. The bit rate of recordable stream data is therefore resultantly restricted. Further in other words, the stream data having the bit rate higher than a predetermined value cannot be recorded in real time.
The data writing process performed by a system which manages the address of written data by means of FAT (File Allocation Table) in a recording medium having a flash memory and uses the address conversion table is shown in FIG. 22.
Though FAT and the address conversion table will be described in detail hereinafter, FAT is the information for managing the concatenation of clusters as a file by linking the address when the data is written in a predetermined data unit, cluster described hereinafter, one by one.
The address conversion table is the information for converting the logical address to be used for FAT to the physical address namely the real address on an actual recording medium.
In detail, one file data is recorded usually on a recording medium over a plurality of clusters, at that time FAT records the concatenation of clusters to manage the record as one data file, address and order of clusters. FAT performs a process by means of address corresponding to the data as the logical address, the address is converted to the physical address based on the address conversion table and the recording/reproducing access to the recording medium is performed.
In the case that the stream data is recorded, the controller of a recorder opens a file to start recording operation in step F301 as shown in FIG. 22.
Every time when one-cluster data is taken in as the supplied stream data, one-cluster data is written in the recording medium in step F302, and the address conversion table and FAT are updated concomitantly with writing of the cluster in steps F303 and F304. In other words, FAT and address conversion table in the recording medium are rewritten.
The reason for requiring updating the FAT and the address conversion table is that an unused logical address on the FAT is assigned and used to write cluster data, a physical address corresponding to the logical address is used on the recording medium. In other words, a certain unused area on the FAT is assigned corresponding to the record of one cluster, and an unused physical address is assigned on the address conversion table corresponding to the logical address.
Every time when 1 cluster stream data is taken in, the steps F302 to F304 are repeated, and when recording of all the stream data supplied as the recording data is completed, then the sequence proceeds to steps F305 to F306, and the file is closed and the process is brought to an end.
The process as described herein above is performed, in this case, it is required that the update data of FAT and the update data of the address conversion table are written every time when 1 cluster data is written. In other words, the writable quantity of stream data is about ⅓ of the writable data quantity per unit time because it is required to write the data in the ratio of the management data update data quantity of 2 to the stream data quantity of 1.
The situation that the stream data having a bit rate exceeding the writable data quantity per unit time can not be accommodated is accepted with reluctance because the writable data quantity per unit time in a recording medium is determined by the specification of the system hardware, but it is not preferable that the upper limit far lower than the upper limit due to the specification of the hardware, namely about ⅓ of writable data quantity per unit time, is caused.
In relation to the above-mentioned problem, it has been desired to eliminate the problem that the high bit rate stream data is accommodable in the view point of the hardware but cannot be accommodated due to the restriction associated with the software. In other words, it is desirable that the high bit rate stream data is writable up to the high bit rate determined by the specification of the hardware as high as possible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording method for recording continuously inputted main data in the blocks of a discretely writable recording medium, to which the identification numbers are added, managed by the recording management data having the writing start locations of main data and the link data for logically linking discretely recorded main data, comprising the steps of:
retrieving recordable blocks in the recording medium in a predetermined order;
recording the main data in the recordable blocks; and
recording the link data in the recording management data area after completion of recording the main data in the recording area.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a managing method for managing the recording management data having the writing start locations of main data continuously inputted and recorded in the discretely recordable recording medium having a plurality of blocks managed with identification numbers which are added to the blocks and the link data for logically linking discretely recorded main data, comprising the steps of:
retrieving recordable blocks according to the recording management data in a predetermined order using identification numbers which are added to the blocks;
recording the recording start location and the link data for logically linking discretely recorded main data as the recording management data wherein the identification number of the block for which the main data is retrieved first is specified to be a writing start location when main data is already recorded in the retrieved blocks.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus for recording continuously inputted main data in the blocks of a discretely writable recording medium, to which the identification numbers are added, managed by the recording management data having the writing start locations of main data and the link data for logically linking discretely recorded main data, comprising:
retrieving means for retrieving recordable blocks of the recording medium in a predetermined order;
recording means for recording the main data and the recording management data in the recording medium; and
control means for retrieving recordable blocks by the retrieving means, recording the main data in the retrieved recordable blocks in the recording medium by the recording means, recording the link data created on completion of recording and writing start locations together as recording management data in the recording medium by the recording means.